Pokemon Gold/Silver Demo Beta Discovered

[Sonictrainer]

Hackers found a 1997 Space World demo for Pokemon Gold/Silver that had early sprites that show very different designs and ideas for certain Pokemon that were later changed or appeared later in certain Pokemon in future Generations. There were also different maps for the regions.

Quote

152: chikorita
153: 2nd stage grass starter, eventually replaced with bayleef (scrapped)
154: meganium
155: mammalian fire starter (scrapped)
156: mammalian fire starter (scrapped)
157: mammalian fire starter (scrapped)
158: plesiosaur water starter (scrapped)
159: plesiosaur water starter (scrapped)
160: plesiosaur water starter (scrapped)
161: hoothoot
162: early noctowl design
163: mareep
164: flaaffy
165: ampharos
166: vulpix prevo (scrapped)
167: tangela prevo (scrapped)
168: tangela evo (scrapped)
169: early mantine design
170: qwilfish
171: qwilfish evo (scrapped)
172: early pichu design
173: early cleffa design
174: early igglybuff design
175: quagsire
176: natu
177: xatu
178: goldeen prevo (scrapped)
179: marill
180: a fish (scrapped)
181: shark with an anchor tail (scrapped)
182: anglerfish (scrapped)
183: crobat
184: paras prevo (scrapped)
185: spinarak
186: early ariados design
187: skarmory
188: blob with a face (scrapped)
189: round, fluffy bird (scrapped)
190: sunflora
191: phanpy
192: donphan
193: a ghost, possibly the precursor to misdreavus (scrapped)
194: early girafarig design (the one on bulbapedo)
195: smeargle
196: meowth prevo (scrapped)
197: black cat (scrapped)
198: black cat (scrapped)
199: early politoed design (looks like tentaquil lul)
200: slowking
201: ledyba
202: early ledian design
203: ponyta prevo (scrapped)
204: espeon
205: umbreon
206: the shellder on slowbro's tail (scrapped)
207: grimer prevo (scrapped)
208: early remoraid design
209: early octillery design
210: early tyrogue design
211: early hitmontop design, likely the missing link between the three-legged spinning thing on bulbapedo and the hitmontop we have now
212: growlithe prevo (scrapped)
213: early hoppip design
214: early skiploom design
215: early jumpluff design
216: mr mime prevo that looks an awful lot like mime jr (scrapped)
217: smoochum
218: early elekid design
219: magby
220: bellossom
221: split weepinbel evo (scrapped)
222: miltank
223: circus sea lion (scrapped)
224: early delibird design
225: lightning bolt tiger cub (scrapped)
226: lightning bolt tiger (scrapped)
227: farfetch'd evo (scrapped)
228: voodoo doll (scrapped)
229: panda (scrapped)
230: murkrow
231: early blissey design
232: scizor
233: pinsir evo (scrapped)
234: houndour
235: houndoom
236: some fluffy ball thing (scrapped)
237: some fluffy ball thing (scrapped)
238: early porygon2 design
239: lickitung evo (scrapped)
240: steelix
241: early kingdra design
242: early raikou design
243: early entei design
244: early suicune design
245: a cat (scrapped)
246: ho-oh
247: togepi
248: snubbull
249: early aipom design
250: some cat/fox thing (scrapped)
 
rip my bro baby meowth

 

[TCB]

This picture complied by jpmeshew on Twitter not only gives us the sprites in color, but classfies them in groups based on the recognized mons, those that may have inpsired their finalized counterparts, those scrapped enterily and so on. It's really interesting to see GF's thought process behind the 251 before the finished product:

Not only that, early Gym Leader designs (this taken from revolocities on Twitter too):

 

EDIT: WAIT THERE'S MORE

 

You can play as a female protagonist in the demo, long before Crystal gave us that option officially, the day/night cycle was also in, but obviously was nowhere near as robust as it was in the final (even dialouge boxes reflected it), and apparently 'early' workings of the skateboard mechanic seen as well:

 

To think all we had to go one for two decades were blurry screenshots and very little, grainy snippets to video to basically the holy grail here. Really fascinating just how early this is compared to the final; the sprites and some of the overworld assets look very Red/Green-esque to rough JPN Blue. 

[Sonictrainer]

Not going to lie. Some of those Baby designs are cute

[BlueFlare]

Nice find! Really love some of those baby Pokemon and would not mind actually having more of them in the games.

[Salamander]

Absolutely fascinating stuff.  It's easy to see why not all of it made the cut; the pre-evolutions are far more numerous and have pretty obvious placeholder designs, and some of the other new faces are distinctly fangamey in appearance.  With that said - I do think there are actually some genuinely good ideas in there; the nest/nestling bird design in particular is genuinely a brilliant concept which just happens to have some unfortunate overlap with Doduo and Dodrio; I'd bring it back in a heartbeat.  The weird beta Tyrogue and Hitmontop kind of have their own charm - and I regard the Tangela evolution as honestly superior to Tangrowth, though that's not exactly a high bar to clear.  The more gun-like Remoraid and helmeted Octillery with a tank-like design might also be improvements on the real thing, or at least push the theme harder.  The more frog-like Politoed is intriguing, and I'm also fond of the Slowbro tail / Slowking head Pokemon.

[Marcello]

This is amazing. I love seeing early stuff like this.

Proto-Bayleef makes me think of Flabébé.

Proto-Pichu has a bit more Raichu in it, I think.

The town, with what I believe are the Alph Ruins reminds me of Celestic Town.

[A person, that exists]

I have to say, the beta sprites for some Pokémon look pretty cool. 

Although, if that nest thing was supposed to be a Doduo pre-evo, then...

Where did the third head go after the evolution, and why did it come back only after the evolved form evolved again?

[Tornado]

It's pretty amazing how ambitious this game was (something that would bite them bad when they actually had to release it) even before the International versions of Red and Blue had released. Different tilesets for every town! Different floor textures in a bunch of buildings! So much stuff was scrapped and replaced with the game that eventually released that it gives off the vibes of the Half Life 2 leak and the sheer amount of stuff Valve abandoned and refocused.

[TCB]

16 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Not going to lie. Some of those Baby designs are cute

Is thst bottom right...baby Ditto? Haha wow.

Baby Meowth I could've actually see making it into the final product, given its popularity at the time.

7 hours ago, Tornado said:

It's pretty amazing how ambitious this game was (something that would bite them bad when they actually had to release it) even before the International versions of Red and Blue had released. Different tilesets for every town! Different floor textures in a bunch of buildings! So much stuff was scrapped and replaced with the game that eventually released that it gives off the vibes of the Half Life 2 leak and the sheer amount of stuff Valve abandoned and refocused.

Wasn't it also noted in its development that Game Freak were really ambitious towards this project due to not only being sequels but not expecting to develop more games past that point? They were really unprepared for the boom of popularity the series will get in 1997. Especially when the Red and Blue haven't even hit the West yet at that point.

[Muscles Maximum]

22 minutes ago, TCB said:

Is thst bottom right...baby Ditto? Haha wow.

It’s baby Grimer. 

BTW I LOVE the beta Tyrogue so much

[Vec]

So, I've seen these for a while, but never had time to go to the PC to make a proper topic

As for the pic

Spoiler

153: Good thing they scrapped this in place of Bayleef. It looks out of place
155 to 160: Good thing they chose Totodile and Cyndaquil in the end. I like both of them
162: I don't quite like it
166: Awww...why scrapped? It looks so cute...
167: A Patapon with a wig
168: Mmm...This version of Tangrowth looks more fit for Grass/Ghost type I guess
169: Mantine looked more like a bird
171: It looks like as if Qwilfish and Whiscash had a baby. Good thing they scrapped it
172: Nope, I like the final Pichu
173: Looks like a mix of Cleffa and Mime Jr.
174: The fluffy hair detail in the final design does Igglybuff a great favor
178: I see why it was scrapped, it looks more like a Seaking Pre-evo than a Goldeen one
180 and 181: The more I see it, the more I see this like an early design of the Sharpedo line
182: This looks like an early design of Huntail
184: Mmm...nah. I think the Parasect line is fine as it is
186: Doesn't look as badass as the current Ariados
188: This...I strongly think this one was then changed to Wynaut
189: Baby Doduo? But then it shouldn't have 3 heads yet...
193: Mmm...the concept looks interesting, yet it looks pretty bland
194: Looks like they wanted to make a ying-yang theme with Girafarig
196: Same as Vulpix Pre-evo...why?
197 and 198: Black cat with bells...I'm pretty much indiferent with this one
199: Wow...Politoed sure went through a drastic change
202: Ledian looked like Ledyba with stars. Good thing they changed it
203: ponyta prevo looks pretty
206: Now having Slowbro's tail as a separate Pokemon would have been interesting
207: Doesn't look like it'd belong in the Muk line...
208 and 209: Remoraid and Octillery had a theme going on with them back then. What would have 4Kids done if they saw a gun-shaped Pokemon?
210: Tyrogue looks like a baby bear
211: What the hell were they thinking with this Hitmontop design?
212: Aww...Cute little puppy Growlithe
213 to 215: The Jumpluff early design had a kitty-like design
216: Early Mime Jr. Looked really weird. The Clown-Mime theme the actual line has looks better
217: smoochum looks like a hand puppet
218: I don't dig this Elekid design. Good thing it didn't stick
219: magby looked more punk-like
220: Belossom had a Jynx thing going on with it
221: Whatever they tried to do with the Bellsprout line, it was terrible
223: Me want fiery sealion
224: pajama delibird!
225 and 226: The pre-evo looks like what they later turned into Togedemaru...Still the evolution looks neat
227: I think a lot of people've been wanting a Farfetch'd evo for a long time. Why scrap it?
228: Wow...this is something else...
229: Look at lil' panda boy :3
230: murkrow looks a lot more stylish
231: Uhhh...That thing in Blissey's head doesn't look healthy...
232: This Scizor looks ugly. I like the current one
233: pinsir evo...It's face doesn't look right
236 and 237: The final evo could be the inspiration to later make Shiftry. At least it's what I think
238: Cute Porygon2? This looks like what they used for Sunny Castform too
239: Just...eww
241: I like this Kingdra more
242 to 244: Good thing they went for the current design. They look more unique than these ones
245: Looks like an otter thing...early Buizel maybe?
249: Looks like Aipom used to be a cat before
250: This is definetly an early Leafeon

They planned Slowbro's tail as a separate Pokemon and yet no baby Kangaskhan whatsoever? By the way, here's a colored version of the sprites